Introduction The aim of this learning guide is to help you develop a critical understanding of the values, skills and methods associated with children’s participation. You will be encouraged to reflect upon and creatively apply the experiences of children and practitioners to new participatory contexts. There are six activities in this unit:
1.1 The biological effects of ethanol This section investigates some of the harmful effects that a high level of blood-ethanol can have on the body: both short-term problems such as ‘hangover’, and long-term health problems that are associated with regular heavy drinking. Whilst this section is primarily about the biological effects that ethanol has on various organs of the body, it is important to remember that the socioeconomic effects of heavy drinking are also very serious (Paton, 2005).
5.6 Final words While social work knowledge, skill and experience can make a difference to a family, the contexts in which we practise create the processes which, more than anything else, determine the life chances of us all. Whether social work always contributes to the solution of problems or sometimes actually adds to the problems that some families face is a debate which has existed as long as social work itself. On a more optimistic note, in the end, the vast majority of parents will want to do their be
4.3 What about communities? The last activity looked at the key roles from the perspective of Lynne and Arthur as individuals, but in fact it also says that working with ‘families, carers, groups and communities’ is necessary. Do you think that Dev should also be taking account of the Durrants as a family, as carers and as members of a community? Dev's role in assessing Arthur's needs means that he should also take account of his family circumstances, in other words, Lynne and perhaps her sister. Lynne also has a ca
3.1 Your life story To begin our exploration of the four components of good practice we will be considering a very specific kind of knowledge, the kind of knowledge that for most of us remains private and is individual to each of us: our personal history or biography. First of all, we invite you to think about the person whose life story you know best: yourself! 1.1 Introduction This extract looks at what we are calling ‘boundaries of explanation’. It tackles key issues such as: What are mental health and distress – and who decides? What are the views of people who have acquired a label of ‘mental illness’? What are the views of those who determine – and patrol – the boundary between mental distress and ‘normality’? The extract looks at language and terminol Learning outcomes By the end of this unit you should be able to understand: the complexity and dilemmas of diverse perspectives in the field of mental health and distress;
the importance of service users'/survivors' experiences and perspectives; how mental health issues affect everyone; the range of risks faced by service users'/survivors' in their everyday lives. Introduction This unit takes you on a journey of discovery where you are invited to challenge ideas, both new and old, in relation to mental health. It is made up of a series of three extracts. The first extract, ‘Boundaries of explanation’, sets out the theme of boundaries: boundaries within and between groups; within and between explanatory frameworks; and within and between experiences of mental health and distress. The second extract, ‘Whose risk is it anyway?’, considers a critical account of Acknowledgements This unit is taken from Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Course Reader) which forms part of the core text for the Open University course K221 Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, (eds Tom Heller, Geraldine Lee-Treweek, Jeanne Katz, Julie Stone and Sue Spurr) (The Open University) published by Routledge, Taylor and Francis in association with The Open University. Copyright © The Open University 2005. Except for third party materia 3.22 Extract 3 References Beauchamp, T. and Childress, J. (1994) Principles of Biomedical Ethics (4th edition), Oxford, Oxford University Press. Cant, S. and Sharma, U. (eds) (1996) Complementary and Alternative Medicines: Knowledge in Practice, London, Free Association Books Ltd. Department of Health (2001) The Expert Patient: A New Approach to Chronic Disease Management for the 21 st Century, London, DoH. Ernst, E. (1996) ‘The ethics of complementary medicine’, Journal o 3.21 Conclusion This extract has shown that CAM practice raises a variety of ethical issues. Although ethical considerations have different dimensions when applied to CAM, this extract demonstrated that ethical issues – such as consent, competence, boundaries and effective communication – remain central to good practice. CAM practitioners, like all other responsible health care workers, must be taught and encouraged to recognise the ethical dimensions of their work. All practitioners must be accountable 3.20 Key ethical issues for CAM practitioners: an effective complaints mechanism Effective relationships require strong communication skills. A good therapeutic relationship allows users the space and security to air their dissatisfaction without recourse to an external body. However, not all users enjoy such open relationships with their practitioners and may prefer to end the relationship than voice a complaint. This is why it is crucial for professional bodies to have accessible and user-centred complaints mechanisms in place. Complaints panels must include a significa 3.18 Key ethical issues for CAM practitioners: maintain professional boundaries All practitioners have a duty to create and maintain safe boundaries, irrespective of their therapeutic orientation, training or individual way of practising. The therapeutic relationship is based on trust and practitioners must never exploit users for their own ends. Practitioners should be aware that they may be working with users who have difficulty respecting boundaries, whether emotional, sexual or financial. Practitioners also need to be very clear about making their own boundaries expl 2.12.2 Litigation The level of litigation against CAM therapists is currently very low, particularly compared with corresponding actions being brought against doctors and other health care professionals. This, in turn, is reflected by the low annual indemnity insurance paid by most CAM practitioners. CAM therapists tend to attribute this to CAM's safety profile compared with orthodox medicine, together with CAM practitioners’ ability to forge better therapeutic relationships with users. However, other commen 2.5 The therapeutic relationship as a placebo Mitchell and Cormack propose that the relationship aspect of a therapeutic encounter can be as important as the technical dimensions of healing (Mitchell and Cormack, 1998). CAM practitioners argue that the therapeutic relationship itself may be an important tool in healing. Critics of CAM turn this argument on its head, suggesting that CAM is, in fact, no more than a powerful form of placebo. What they generally mean is that it is not the specific treatments used that evoke a healing respons 1.13 Extract 1 References Antonovsky, A. (1979) Health, Stress and Coping: New Perspectives on Mental and Physical Well-Being, San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass. Antonovsky, A. (1987) Unraveling the Mystery of Health: How People Manage Stress and Stay Well, San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass. Blaxter, M. (1983) ‘The causes of disease: women talking’, Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 59–69. Bowling, A. (1991) Measuring Health, Buckingham, Open University Pres 1.6.6 Professional bodies and societies Consider joining a learned society or professional organisation. They can be very useful for conference bulletins as well as in-house publications, often included in the subscription. Don't forget to ask about student rates. Try looking for the websites of learned societies associated with your subject area (e.g. The Royal Society , the Institute of Electrica 1.5.7 Referencing We mentioned above that we need to reference sources to ensure we abide by copyright legislation. But there is another reason we need to give accurate references to items we use – so we can share it. Consider this scenario. A friend says they’ve just read an interesting article where Joshua Schachter, founder of Delicious has spoken about why it isn’t a faceted search system, and you should read it. How would you go about finding it? Would you start looking in a news database, a s 1.5.6 Copyright – what you need to know An original piece of work, whether it is text, music, pictures, sound recordings, web pages, etc., is protected by copyright law and may often have an accompanying symbol (©) and/or legal statement. In the UK it is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which regulates this. In most circumstances, works protected by copyright can be used in whole or in part only with the permission of the owner. In some cases this permission results in a fee. However, the UK legislation incl 1.4.2 P is for Presentation By presentation, we mean, the way in which the information is communicated. You might want to ask yourself: Is the language clear and easy to understand? Is the information clearly laid out so that it is easy to read? Are the fonts large enough and clear? Are the colours effective? (e.g. white or yellow on black can be difficult to read) If there are graphics or photos, do they help
